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Speculative Evolution Wiki:Manual of Style
This is Speculative Evolution Wiki's Manual of Style. The Manual of Style is the code to be followed by all content pages on the wiki. Any other basic style guide compliances, such as grammar and punctuation, are to be followed along with most of the Wikipedia Manual of Style. All reviews of articles which do not follow the Manual of Style should be marked with . This style guide is the only one on this wiki and subpages will not be used. This presents all topics in full. Headings Article Titles Summary: Our wiki has different and additional conventions in creating article titles from Wikipedia, especially in capitalisation. *'Rule 1.1.1:' Use title case in all article titles. This means to always capitalise the first word, and to capitalise all other words which are not prepositions, conjunctions, or articles. **'Exception:' In rare cases, like in the project Future of The World, this can be broken, but currently this is the only case, and should stay the only case. *'Rule 1.1.2:' When writing an article for a speculative evolution project other than the main page, always entitle it in the format Page Name (Project Name). Page Name – Project Name, Project Name: Page Name, or any other formats not mentioned are not accepted, and should be renamed by anyone who comes across this. This is also the correct manner to entitle a page with a disambiguation in its title. *'Rule 1.1.3:' Always italicise an article when its title would normally be italicised in a sentence. Unlike some other wikis, taxonomic genera, species, and subspecies should be italicised, along with book, film, and television titles. These in general are the two cases of italics in article titles, but if another case arises where italics would be used on Wikipedia, do not hesitate to italicise the title. **'Guide:' You cannot italicise a title when you first create the page; the template must be used. If part of a title is to be italicised, use the magic word, which works as such: . Sections Summary: The conventions to follow sections include the manner in which to use headings, as well as specific sections to include. *'Rule 1.2.1:' All articles must contain a lead section. The lead section is the portion of the article before any section headings, and should describe the major points of the topic, with details in latter sections. *'Rule 1.2.2:' Factual articles should contain a section called "References" with the template. All citations will automatically be placed here. *'Rule 1.2.3:' A "See Also" section is optional in factual articles, but should not be placed in speculative articles. This can also be entitled "Further Reading" or "External Links". *'Rule 1.2.4:' Section headings should be capitalised in the same manner as in article titles. *'Rule 1.2.5:' Except in rare cases where a heading edit button would be strange or distracting (i.e. the template on the main page), HTML section tags should not be used. **'Guide:' Instead, use equals signs. Title corresponds to , Title corresponds to , and so on. Level one headings (=Title= or Title) should never be used, as the tag is used as the article title. *'Rule 1.2.6:' Tables of contents may be changed using magic word modifiers, but can never be shifted to the right. Otherwise forcing, removing, or shifting tables of contents is generally okay unless it is distracting to the article layout. Scientific Names Summary: In general, there are three kinds of scientific names: clade names, generic and subgeneric names, and binomials and trinomials. When writing these names, several conventions are strictly enforced. *'Rule 2.1:' Clade names can be written in two ways, English names, and scientific names. The two are often confused, but they should not be. English names include terms like great ape and otter, but the terms hominid and lutrine are also common English terms. These should never be capitalised unless they are in a heading or title, or at the beginning of a sentence. Especially confusing is the case of the latter, but they are not to be confused with their capitalised scientific counterparts, Hominidae and Lutrinae. *'Rule 2.2:' PhyloCode conventions should not be used, so clade names are never italicised. *'Rule 2.3:' All genera and subgenera are italicised and capitalised. Following the example of cattle, the genus cannot be written bos, Bos, or bos, but must be written as Bos. The subgenus is written like the genus, but in not italicised parentheses. The subgenus that cattle belong to is Bos (Bos). *'Rule 2.4:' Specific and subspecific names in scientific names are italicised but not capitalised. The generic name can be abbreviated, and in names including subspecies, the specific name can as well. Continuing the example of cattle, the possible ways to write the scientific name of cattle (and the aurochs) are: **''Bos primigenius'' **''B. primigenius'' **''Bos primigenius taurus'' **''B. primigenius taurus'' **''B. p. taurus'' **''Bos'' (Bos) primigenius **''B.'' (Bos) primigenius **''B.'' (B.) primigenius **''Bos'' (Bos) primigenius taurus **''B.'' (Bos) primigenius taurus **''B.'' (B.) primigenius taurus **''B.'' (B.) p. taurus Conventions Measurement Summary: The metric system is to be used primarily in measurement on this wiki. *'Rule 3.1.1:' While customary measurements can be used for comparison, the only acceptable formats are metric and metric (customary). *'Rule 3.1.2:' Other units (neither metric nor customary) can be used as long as they have been accepted for use with one of the two systems (e.g. astronomical unit, ångstrom). *'Rule 3.1.3:' Temperature is to be measured in degrees Celsius primarily, but Kelvin and Fahrenheit are acceptable in use with Celsius. Writing Bias Summary: Bias is treated as on Wikipedia, but there are a few notable things to be mentioned here. *'Rule 3.2.1.1:' The treatment of any organism or group of organisms as superior to another is frowned upon. Examples of this include "mammals are the most spectacular clade in history," or even "man has absolute power to control all other organisms." *'Rule 3.2.1.2:' Another important bias is that of gratefulness, sadness, etc. Unusable words include, but are not limited to, unfortunately, thankfully, and hopefully. Some common examples are those of treating predators as villains and dead animals as mourned over. Treating organisms as lucky or unlucky is only acceptable if it is in relation to probability. For example, if an organism goes extinct for a statistically probable reason, the term unlucky is generally prohibited. *'Rule 3.2.1.3:' Another important note on bias is to accept theories as fact when they have been extensively proven, and never having clear biases over controversial theories. If part of a project (esp. alternative evolution) is reliant on a possible, but not definite presumption, this should be written as if fact, in order to avoid writing in a non-factual style. However, if a very implausible theoretical presumption is made in the project, and is integral to the project, then this should be considered as an alternative spilt in and of itself. Otherwise, these presumptions should generally be avoided completely. Speculative Writing Summary: When writing speculative articles, the conventions in article writing are generally more relaxed than those of formal writing. However, there are a few conventions to follow. These include viewpoint, the previously mentioned bias, and writing style. Viewpoint and Tense Summary: Generally, the viewpoint and tense with which one is writing depends on the time period which the writing is focusing on. *'Rule 3.2.2.1.1:' In future evolution (or exobiology taking place in the future, such as Terra Chordata), one or more viewpoints of the present are used. In a future evolution project, there are two variations, one in which it focuses on only one time period, and one in which it focuses on many. In the case of one, take the example of 50 million years given by After Man: A Zoology of the Future. The present tense is used for 50 million years in the future, the past tense for anything before that (including the less distant future, the present, and the past), and the future tense for insight into the world after 50 million years in the future. The same applies to the second type of future evolution projects, just that the point in time referred to using the present tense is variable. The future tense should not be used to refer to the point of focus, as it sounds informal and nonfactual. Thus, "The snowstalker will live in northern Europe 5 million years in the future" is bad practice, while "Five million years in the future, the snowstalker lives in northern Europe" is acceptable. *'Rule 3.2.2.1.2:' In alternative evolution or "normal" exobiology, all tenses are as usual. When referring to the present (usually the point of focus) the present tense is used. Even if all points in time in a project are treated equally, the tenses still apply. The past uses the past tense, while the future uses future tense. Although the future is rarely gone over in detail in alternative evolution or usual exobiology, it is usually mentioned at some point, and should use the future tense. Writing Style Summary: Speculative articles should adopt a formal and pseudo-factual writing style. *'Rule 3.2.2.2.1:' Any sort of writing which includes viable options for a time period which is the focus of the scenario, or any of a certain selection of words, including, but not limited to could, would, or should; is not allowed on the wiki. However, an faux-encyclopedic writing style is not the only acceptable one for speculative articles. *'Rule 3.2.2.2.2:' Speculative articles can instead include a storyline of events in chronological order. This is especially the case when writing about history, whether in future evolution, alternative evolution, or exobiology. Encyclopedic Writing The writing style followed by encyclopedic articles should be formal, factual, and free of biases. All writing conventions used on Wikipedia are to be followed, but note that style conventions should follow this style guide. Speculation in encyclopedic articles should only considered as a possibility, and be used in the could sense. Citing Sources :See also: Wikipedia:Citing sources All sources should be cited in factual articles. While well-known information should need no references, any little-known or possibly disputable information needs references. Reliable sources must be used, and while the differentiation between reliable and unreliable sources is ultimately up to the writer to decide, this will give a rough guide. All print or film sources should be taken as fact, and generally are correct. This is not to say that they will have correct every minor detail, but they are unlikely to have completely untrue information. On the other hand, when looking up a recent event, print or film is not the best source, and internet news is generally more reliable. Wikipedia articles may be used as long as they look reliable (i.e., not a stub, protected). Scientific papers can be used as sources freely without exception. To cite sources, use … tags. For a more detailed explanation, see Template:Reflist. The citing manner should be a simplified bibliography. For books, this should include the publication year, author, and title. For film, this should include the publication year, title, and any important people in the making of the film. For web pages, this should include the date the article was retrieved, the title, the site name, and the URL. The easiest way to cite internet sources is to use the template. Linking Internal links in an article should be used whenever the article linked to is relevant to the topic, and falls under speculative biology. Another restriction of internal linking is that project pages should only link to other pages in the same project or to factual articles, and never to other projects. External links are generally more relaxed here than on Wikipedia, while external links can go in a "See Also" or "External Links" section, they can also be placed using the template. Links to Wikipedia can generally be placed anywhere, but due to the distracting layout of external links, links to any other sites are mostly restricted to either of the see also options. This should be used with judgement, however, and should not feel like an obligation. Categorising This wiki has an intricate category web, which falls under a few principles. Firstly, all categories should lead up to the root category (Speculative Evolution Wiki), but mostly indirectly. Secondly, pages can be placed in multiple categories, but never multiple for each category type, and should only be placed in the category that best describes that page for the topic. For example, a page about a future pig should be placed in artiodactyls, but not in mammals, because artiodactyls eventually flows into mammals. Generally, the types of categories directly linked to on pages are taxonomic, place-related, speculative biology type, subject, and project. The taxonomic categories should only be used when the subject of the article is a life form. Place-related categories describe articles about places or areas; for example, a page on Japan being sorted into Asia. Speculative biology type should be used for projects and published works. Subject should be used for factual articles. Project categories are created for each project, and all pages of the project, including the main page, should be put in it, unless it is a very large project with project subcategories. Images We highly suggest be used to upload images. Special:Upload allows for naming, as opposed to the automatic naming system used by the editor's image upload. Names should not contain random characters (like 897868634.jpg) or a pixel prefix (like 220px-Example.jpg) and if they are discovered should be renamed. Self-descriptive names are also necessary, and files with names like Images.jpg should also be renamed. Image quality is not a must on our wiki, but is still recommended. In general, the image quality and size should be dependent on the usage of the image. Although blurry images should be replaced, small images are usually acceptable. Images meant to be used as thumbs in article should be larger than 400 pixels. Project logos or other images meant to be large and not used as thumbs should be over 700 pixels. Although these are few, wiki backgrounds or similar images should be at least 1280 pixels. Images should not distract the readers or disrupt the layout of a page in any way. Large centered images should only be used at the top of a page as project logos, and all other images in articles should be thumbs. Thumbs should have captions and can be shifted to the left or right. Thumbs should also be between 200 and 300 pixels, although slightly past either end of this range is usually acceptable. When an image appears directly below an infobox or another image, it is also usually necessary to have an image the same width as the infobox or image directly above it. All or most thumbnail images should include a caption to describe the image and how it relates to the topic. The caption should be of reasonable length; that is, shorter than a paragraph. If the caption is a simple phrase, it should not end with a period unless there is another phrase or a proper sentence following it. See Also *Speculative Evolution Wiki:Media Copyright Control *Speculative Evolution Wiki:Uploading Policy Manual of Style